Oct. 03--ABINGDON, Va. -- A federal judge on Tuesday approved a
pharmaceutical company’s $1.5 billion settlement for
illegally marketing the anti-seizure drug Depakote for uses not
permitted by the food and drug administration.

The agreed payoff by Abbott Laboratories Inc., originally
crafted in May, is listed by state and federal prosecutors as the
largest state Medicaid fraud investigation in the nation’s
history.

"We expect companies to make honest, lawful claims about the
drugs they sell," Stuart F. Delery, acting assistant attorney
general for the Justice Department’s civil division, said in
a written announcement of the settlement.

From 1996 through 2006, Abbott sent out a sales force
specifically trained to market Depakote as a treatment for
agitation and aggression in elderly patients, according to
documents filed in U.S. District Court in Abingdon.

From 2001 through 2006, Abbott marketed Depakote as a treatment
for schizophrenia when combined with other mental health drugs.

Clinical trials failed to show the drug was an effective
treatment for either of those uses.

"Abbott unlawfully targeted a vulnerable population, the
elderly," U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Virginia
Timothy Heaphy said in the announcement.

Tuesday’s settlement, approved by U.S. District Judge
Samuel G. Wilson, includes a criminal fine and forfeiture totaling
$700 million and civil settlements with the federal government and
states totaling $800 million.

Virginia’s share of the civil settlement is $4.2
million.

The initial lawsuit was filed in U.S. District Court in Abingdon
in 2007.

According to Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli, the
whistleblowers came to Virginia because the unit has a national
reputation for successfully investigating major national cases,
such as the Purdue Pharma Oxycontin case.

"Medicaid dollars are limited, and fraud deprives people in true
need of necessary medical care," Cuccinelli said in a written
statement.

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